Various manual dispensers of products are well known for dispensing products such as hand and skin cleaning fluids, whether as liquids or foamed soap, paper towel dispensers as for use in washrooms, toilet tissue dispensers as for use in washrooms, toilet cover dispensers as for use in washrooms, feminine hygiene product dispensers, and beverage dispensers in cafeterias. Known such manual dispensers are manually operated in the sense that manual forces are applied to dispense the product. One difficulty which arises with such dispensing apparatus is to provide for timely maintenance, servicing and monitoring such as, for example, to ensure that there is always product to be dispensed and that the dispenser is operating properly.
The present inventor has appreciated a desire to provide for communication of such dispensing apparatus with various other systems. However, a disadvantage arises insofar as such manual dispensers are not connected to any electrical power source and thus are not adapted to drive electrically powered communication systems.
Replaceable batteries are known for placement in dispensing apparatus so as to drive dispensing motors and/or electronics associated with the apparatus, however, such replaceable batteries suffer the disadvantage that they are another component of the system which is prone to failure. Moreover, in manual dispensing apparatus, the cost of the batteries substantially decreases the commercial viability of the manual dispensing apparatus particularly in a competitive market favouring simple inexpensive manually operated dispensing apparatus.
Fuel cells for the creation of electrical energy by the conversion of alcohol compounds, such as ethanol, are known as are techniques for manufacturing such fuel cells in the mass production manner as on the plastic film.
Direct alcohol fuel cells are taught in U.S. Pat. No. 5,132,193 to Ready, issued Jul. 21, 1992 which teaches generation of electricity in a small compact alcohol fuelled fuel cell electric power plant in which poisoning by reaction intermediates is avoided or minimized. As alcohol fuels, lower primary alcohols are preferred particularly methanol and ethanol with other lower primary alcohols such as 1-propanol, 1-butanol and n-amyl alcohol also operative.
Piezoelectricity is the ability of some materials notably crystals and certain ceramics to generate an electric field or electric potential in response to applied mechanical stress. A piezoelectric generator converts motion and force to electrical power, as charge and voltage. A piezoelectric generator can be configured to generate an electric potential when the generator is bent, compressed or stretched by the manual energy applied in manually activating a dispenser. For example, a piezoceramic may be constructed to generate a voltage differential across its electrodes when the piezoceramic is bent, compressed or stretched. Persons skilled in the art appreciates that there are multiple ways to fabricate a piezoceramic that creates an electrical voltage when deformed. In one method, two compressing piezoceramics are stacked together. The piezoceramics are polarized in opposite directions. When such a stack is mechanically bent, one piezoceramic compresses while the other one stretches and an electric potential is created across the stack or a portion of the stack. A single piezoceramic layer may also be polarized to create an electrical potential when bent.
Previously known soap dispensers suffer the disadvantage that they do not have the capability to readily determine the amount of fluid dispensed or the amount of fluid remaining in a reservoir.
Many fluids are known as useful for cleaning and disinfecting.
Ozone (O3) is a strong oxidizing agent having an oxygenation potential more than 1.5 times that of chlorine and approximately 1.2 times that of hydrogen peroxide. Ozone is normally produced by passing an oxygen-containing gas through ultraviolet light or a corona discharge. Ozone has been shown to be a relatively reactive oxidant capable of destroying pathogenic microorganisms. Ozone naturally decomposes into oxygen within relatively short periods of time.
Presently known devices do not provide for adequate methods or apparatus for generation and dispensing of small amounts of ozone as can be useful, for example, in hand cleaning soap dispensers.
Piston pumps are known for engagement in the neck of a fluid containing bottle to dispense fluid from the bottle. Such known pumps suffer a disadvantage as to the limited volume which can be provided in compartments formed in the pump, particularly compartments to receive air.